Thread: What can AutoPlay 6.0 do?

Hi, I have some yes or no questions for you guys.

Please keep in mind that there is one important thing when it comes to the questions: Under no circumstances should the AutoPlay project install PROGRAMS on the users computer. Save a txt file, yes ok, install thirdparty software, NO.

1. Can I run a AutoPlay project from a CD or DVD that contains a database on it? Let us say a client has approx. 150 products, and I want to create a cd catalogue for the client. Can I do that with AutoPlay and thirdparty software without installing a database on the client computer? You might ask, why not connect to a database on internet, and the answer: 1) there is no database on internet to connect to, 2) internet access might not be available when running the CD rom.

2. If I have 150 products within the CDrom presentation, can I get the user to select all the items they like to purchase and present like a shopping basket when completed, or is that not possible? The products are spread on multiple pages, and I am thinking of a tickermark for every product along with a field for the amount of products to purchase. When they are finished selecting products, and email is generated where the user can either send the email with the listing of all products they want to purcase, or they can store the email for later, when they have internet access.

3. If I use a AVI movie at the startup of the project, and the clients computer can not run the AVI file. Will he still be able to run the project?

4. Does AutoPlay projects run on MACs or is it just Windows?

Thanks.

Hi, AutoPlay Media Studio only installs third party software when you require it, i.e. Flash, etc.

1. Yes. But obviously it's impossible to deploy a database without deploying a database. You have two choices when deploying database driven applications in general, allow access to a remote database or include the database with your project, that's the only two ways that functionality can be achieved using any technology, not just AMS. AMS comes with an SQLite plug-in which works without installing anything to the end users computer. Google has plenty of info on SQLite which should help you decide if it's a suitable solution for your needs.

2. Yes. This can be scripted in AMS. Whether or not you are personally in a position to do the scripting is basically a quotient of your scripting ability and/or your motivation to learn AMS scripting. There are inexpensive video training options soon to be released which make it easier. The project you describe is not particularly difficult but it will require some basic scripting skills.

3. Not sure, I've never heard of a case where an AVI file wouldn't run. My guess is "Yes, but possibly after an error message depending on why the AVI didn't run". Perhaps one of the others here will know that. In the big picture it's impossible to know what pre-existing media playback problems might be on an end user's system though.

4. Just Windows. Currently there are no plans to add Mac support.

Hope that helps.

AVI is a deprecated format. Microsoft stopped supporting it a long time ago, and any "modern" codec used in conjunction with AVI will be very hit and miss in terms of playback compatibility across a wide distribution of computers. I recommend converting your video to MPEG-1 for playback compatibility. You'd probably have decent success using Windows Media (WMV), too, especially if you were concerned with compressing to the highest possible visual quality. But MPEG-1 is best for compatibility, hands-down.

Though I do not have the volumes of years of experience that Eric does (video product galore!), I want to throw my "fwiw" to back his comment on MPEG-1. I use it for my video sharing, in a commercial setting, for the fact it is widely accepted.

Originally Posted by eric_darling

AVI is a deprecated format. Microsoft stopped supporting it a long time ago, and any "modern" codec used in conjunction with AVI will be very hit and miss in terms of playback compatibility across a wide distribution of computers. I recommend converting your video to MPEG-1 for playback compatibility. You'd probably have decent success using Windows Media (WMV), too, especially if you were concerned with compressing to the highest possible visual quality. But MPEG-1 is best for compatibility, hands-down.

I am not sure what you are saying about .avi. I understand that to play any format not "officially" supported by MS needs a codec installed. But DIVX is a fantastic video format and the play codec is freely distributed. It even has DD 5.1 support. Xvid isn't far behind. Now that DVD media has became cheap and plentiful, putting a lot of high quality video on a single disc is possible.
I think that it's time to move up from mpeg 1. As more and more people get computers and use them for media purposes, the requirement for high quality vids in our projects becomes more important. Start distributing that DIVX codec now, and the upgrade won't be so painful later. The average person will be familiar with it in a couple of years, even more familiar than they are to mpg, now. I mean, mpg was new at one time, too.
My .02

Thanks for your answers. It was not AVI in particual I wanted to know. I used that as an example. Let us use Flash as an example, perhaps that gives you a better idea of what I am asking about.

If I put a flash movie on a project, and the client does not have any Flash plugins available on his computer, what will happend?
In AutoRun, I have the Dependency property on the project.
If I choose that the project depend on Flash, but set required to false, will it still play the project (exept showing the flash movie), or will it crash or stop?

I hope I explained it better this time, sorry for that.

Originally Posted by abcnormal

Thanks for your answers. It was not AVI in particual I wanted to know. I used that as an example. Let us use Flash as an example, perhaps that gives you a better idea of what I am asking about.

If I put a flash movie on a project, and the client does not have any Flash plugins available on his computer, what will happend?
In AutoRun, I have the Dependency property on the project.
If I choose that the project depend on Flash, but set required to false, will it still play the project (exept showing the flash movie), or will it crash or stop?

I hope I explained it better this time, sorry for that.

The quickest way to find out just may be to try it out yourself. That will give you the answer and you will know it is the correct answer.

it should let them continue with the project even if the flash file doesnt load. if you do set the dependancy to yes, it will pop up with a web link to go get the program.

From past experience, dependency has nothing to do with app running. If you don't have a codec, your file won't play, if you don't have flash, your flash object won't show, if you don;t have JRE, your java applet won;t show inside your webobject etc...

Yossi

Get your video and convert it to wmv. Wmv stands for "Windows Media Video". Microsoft invented this extension and your clients will be able to watch your video having or not any modern player or plugin. Even the Windows Media player from Windows 95, supports wmv videos. Throw a coin in the air and the possibility of it falling on it's edge is the possibility of a client not be able to play wmv videos. Convert your video to wmv and put it on your project. I can guarantee you that your clients will be able to watch the video.

Even the Windows Media player from Windows 95, supports wmv videos.

Wow. I didn't realize that. Great tip, thanks.

One thing to take into account on WMV is the Codec version? (correct?)

Originally Posted by Intrigued

One thing to take into account on WMV is the Codec version? (correct?)

I don't think so. I use to watch wmv videos just fine on my old Windows 95 computer and I didn't have any codec. Literally. I had no codec.

Originally Posted by Daniel TM

I don't think so. I use to watch wmv videos just fine on my old Windows 95 computer and I didn't have any codec. Literally. I had no codec.

Ah, that's good to know. Coo'!

You don't have to worry about codecs while talking about wmv videos. Codecs are for unknown video types. Once you install Windows XP Service Pack 2 the latest version of Windows Media Player is installed but it doesn't recognize DivX videos, so you have to download the DivX codec if you want to watch a DivX Video. DivX is just an example. There are many other file types that you need a codec. That's practically all about videos. I hope I helped abcnormal with his video issue.